Quantum Biology/Life by Victor P. Sept. 2012

1. Quantum Biology/Life by Victor P. Sept. 2012 God: “Without me you would not exist.” Abraham: “Without me, you would not be known.” - John A. Wheeler Intro Music: walking_on_air 16.flv

2. Wiki Definitions: • Quantum biology refers to applications of quantum mechanics to biological objects and problems. Usually, it is taken to refer to applications of the "non-trivial" quantum features such as… • superposition(no single value – fuzzy in that it exists partly in all its particular, theoretically possible states (or, configuration of its properties) simultaneously… multi-value or quantum combination property) • , nonlocality (no local realism… reality is not solely determined by “local” spacetime values) • , entanglement (shared functions/information for non-local realism consistency/correlation between sets of “ entangled partiles”) and • tunneling (non particle single motion, super multiple probability wave positions due to Heisenberg uncertainty principle, superpositions, and the wave–particle duality of matter, as opposed to the "trivial" applications such as chemical bonding which apply to biology only indirectly by dictating quantum chemistry.

3. When Quantum Biology was suspected… • The founders of QM immediately in the late 1920s wondered if life, • which is has low entropy in its high classical complex organization/information structure, • would take advantage of the high entropy fuzzy/randomness unstructured aspects of the quantum world?

4. Life? (Biology) in Maxwell’s Demon/Angel

5. Maxwell’s Thought Experiment • An attempt to violate the Second law of Thermodynamics (increase in entropy (disorder) in lifeless non biological systems ) [ by using a clever life demon] • Make B hotter than A • Let more energetic molecules go to B

6. What Is Life? – Schrödinger’s book • What Is Life? is a 1944 non-fiction science book written for the lay reader by quantum founding physicist Erwin Schrödinger (the dead/alive superpositioned cat). • He promoted the idea of a molecular code-script for explaining the stability of biological order.  DNA! • Schrödinger also speculated on the more exotic ontological existence of his “cat” existence with statements in which he rejects the idea that the source of consciousness should perish with the body because he finds the idea "distasteful". He also rejects the idea that there are multiple immortal souls that can exist without the body because he believes that consciousness is nevertheless highly dependent on the body. Schrödinger writes that, to reconcile the two premises, The only possible alternative is simply to keep to the immediate experience that consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown [dead AND alive “cat”]; that there is only one thing and that what seems to be a plurality is merely a series of different aspects of this one thing...

7. They discounted QM in biology because… • Life is big (cells) in comparison to photons/electrons where QM is applicable • Life is hot (and active) in comparison to where QM works best in cold isolated environments where it is currently studied [to keep QM coherence] • Life is wet in comparison to controlled QM experimental environments where it is studied in a vacuum to avoid environmental influences which decoheres QM effects • Life is slow in comparison to QM events where it is measured in milliseconds or less • Life is complex, requiring billions of particle relationships/bonds in comparison to simple QM relationships/entanglements involving < 100 particles • Life is not fuzzy (yes/no) and real in comparison to the QM random world which is probablistic multi value/states superpositions • Life is real, local, and stable in comparison to Heisenberg QM uncertainty and non-local realism • Life brings out discrete realism/information and QM always reverts to its fuzzy world • … BUT Nature is the nanotech MASTER!!!!! … so it was soon found out that IT can!! since QM works in the nano-world of BIO

8. Measuring/technologies in the last 10 year can verify/study it. • 1965 Lowdin, P.O. (1965) Quantum genetics and the aperiodic solid. • 1995 Penrose Shadows of the mind … our quantum brain • 2002 M. Tegmark, "Why the brain is probably not a quantum computer," • 2007 Quantum Hall Effect Observed at Room Temperature… • and others • Origin of life – Davies; Al-Khalili & McFadden • Photosynthesis – Castro et al; coherencefoundexperimentally. • Decoherence in proteins, tunelling in enzymes – Bothema et al • Protein biosynthesis and molecular evolution – Goel • Cytoskeleton, decoherence, memory – Nanopoulos; Hameroff • Genetic code, self-replication – Pati; Bashford & Jarvis; Patel • Quantum cellular automata – Flitney & Abbot • Evolutionary stability – Iqbal & Cheon …. And other links …   

9. Links from York University Dr. Scott Menary • Complex quantum network model of energy transfer in photosynthetic complexes - August, 2012 • Excitonic energy transfer in light-harvesting complexes in purple bacteria - July, 2012 • Entanglement between macroscopic objects generated by dissipation - August, 2011 • Quantum correlations -- without entanglement - August, 2011 • Quantum entanglement between electronic and vibrational degrees of freedom in molecules - July, 2011 • Consistent treatment of coherent and incoherent energy transfer dynamics using a variational master equation - July, 2011 • The Physical Basis for Long-lived Electronic Coherence in Photosynthetic Light Harvesting Systems - July, 2011. • An efficient method to calculate excitation energy transfer in light harvesting systems. Application to the FMO complex - June, 2011. • Microscopic origin of the long-lived quantum coherences in the Fenna-Matthew-Olson complex - April, 2011. • On the Equivalence of Quantum and Classical Coherence in Electronic Energy Transfer - April, 2011. • Optimal and robust energy transfer in light-harvesting complexes: (I) Efficient simulation of excitonic dynamics in the non-perturbative and non-Markovian regimes - March, 2011. • Coherent open-loop optimal control of light-harvesting dynamics - March, 2011. • Coherent excitation transferring via dark state in light-harvesting process - February, 2011 • Distribution of Entanglement in light-harvesting complexes and their quantum efficiency - March, 2010. • Exciton Dynamics in Photosynthetic Complexes: Excitation by Coherent and Incoherent Light - February, 2010. • Long-lived Quantum Coherence in Photosynthetic Complexes at Physiological Temperature - January, 2010. • Entanglement and Entangling Power of the Dynamics in Light-harvesting Complexes - December, 2009

10. Recent News:Enzyme catalysts (http://phys.org/archive/06-02-2012/) • Chemists have yet to achieve the dream of making catalysts as powerful as natural enzymes. Nature just has the best! • Use of quantum tunnelling in whenever small atomic exchanges occur • The current chemical theories/models do not incorporate QM  nature will educate us and expand our knowledge of BIO chemistry

11. QM in photosynthesis – Seth Lloyd Videoat the Perimeter Institute (15 Min total) • Video seth_lloyd_on_quantum_life 8.flv 19:40 24:00 QM Random walk • 30:30  34:00 QM at liquid water temperatures or room temperature, energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems. Great for QM Information research. • 38:19 42:37 Avian Compass, mechanism of Avian Magnetoreception using Quantum Zeno Effect underpinning the radical-ion-pair • See QM smelling in last part of video, if interested.

12. The 1994 Penrose hypothesizes that:- Human consciousness is non-algorithmic, and thus is not capable of being modeled by a conventional Turing machine-type of digital computer. Quantum mechanics plays an essential role in the understanding of human consciousness, specifically, he believes that microtubules within neurons support quantum superpositions. The objective collapse of the quantum wavefunction of the microtubules is critical for consciousness. The collapse in question is physical behaviour that is non algorithmic and transcends the limits of computability. The human mind has abilities that no Turing machine could possess because of this mechanism of non-computable physics.The Orch-OR theory arose from the cooperation of these two scientists, and were developed in Penrose's second consciousness book Shadows of the Mind (1994).[6] Hameroff's contribution to the theory derived from studying brain cells (neurons). His interest centered on the cytoskeleton, which provides an internal supportive structure for neurons, and particularly on the microtubules,[5] which are the important component of the cytoskeleton. As neuroscience has progressed, the role of the cytoskeleton and microtubules has assumed greater importance. In addition to providing a supportive structure for the cell, the known functions of the microtubules include transport of molecules including neurotransmitter molecules bound for the synapses, and control of the cell's movement, growth and shape.[5]

13. Orch-OR theory Hameroff Video (13 Min total): clarifying_the_tubulin_bit_qubit_-_defending_the_penrose-hameroff_orch_or_model__quantum_biology 2.flv 9:2416:22 20:4021:54 26:52 29:03 QM effects in biology at brain temperature.

14. Henry Stapp (post-doctoral work under Wolfgang Pauli )video _6 16:1520:16 1:51:301:55:20 end (total 9 min) • Biological reality: • QM provides a “smear of possibilities” • QM requires a question to be posed by a measurement by a device/human – e.g. how many inches, what charge, how heavy?? .. The observer provides the meaning/context (Anton Zellinger) the QM provides the values from it’s random probabilistic value bucket. • QM makes the choice on the one value to provide as an answer, to make the observer’s local realism consistent and “real” • How does QM select one value by the decoherence and collapse of the QM superposition as the answer to the observer’s question? • Stapp favours the idea that quantum waves collapse only when they interact with consciousness. He argues that quantum waves collapse when intelligent [quantum] brains select one among the alternative quantum possibilities as a basis for future action. He mentions a 50hz conscious attention reinforcement of one of the QM possibilities. In other words, the quantum brain picks out the favored reality from the QM “smear of possibilities”. Using a mind like' wave-function collapse that exploits certain aspects of the quantum Zeno effect within the synapses to explain attention.  The mind holds the brain in a superposition of states using the quantum Zeno effect. He advances that this phenomenon is the principal method by which the conscious can effect change, a possible solution to the mind-body dichotomy. • Quantum Zeno Effect: (George Sudarshan and Baidyanath Misra 1977) in their analysis of the situation in which an unstable particle, if observed continuously, will never decay.[1] One can "freeze" the evolution of the system by measuring it frequently enough in its (known) initial state. Stapp makes the human brain the selector of the QM possibility ( see static Zeno’s arrow paradox). Allan Turing: “continual [very fast] observations will prevent motion”

15. Quantum Entanglement Holds DNA Together, Say Physicists • A new theoretical model suggests that quantum entanglement helps prevent the molecules of life from breaking apart. http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/dnaquantumcomputera.htm

16. Quantum entanglement helps keep DNA together June 29, 2010 • DNA, the ‘particles’ are the molecules of the DNA base pairs, formed by the nucleotides with adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine. Each nucleotide is surrounded by a cloud of electrons that behave as if the nucleotide were an atomic nucleus. The cloud shifts relative to the nucleus, perhaps influenced by what are called Van der Waals forces, from side to side so to speak forming a dipole (two poles), and this shifting is regular – a harmonic oscillation. In solid-state physics, the oscillation of molecules within a solid is known as a phonon, a kind of quasi-particle that vibrates at a specific frequency and gives the solid many of its electrical and physical properties. In DNA, when a base pair is formed the clouds of each nucleotide must oscillate in opposite directions if the bond is to hold together. The model also shows that this configuration can maintain the bond at high temperatures – room temperatures or above (e.g. 20 degrees C or 68 degrees F). • The quantum entanglement is vital to making this work, because under classical mechanics the vibration of the particles in the helix would shake it apart, especially at higher temperatures.

17. CONCLUSIONS“Quantum biology is one among several approaches aiming of coming close to the collective, non-linear, “holistic” phenomena of the living cell, beyond the reductionist view of life given by molecular biology. “ -Eugen A. Preoteasa Questions: • If the human brain turns out to be an extremely complex quantum brain then AI will take longer to exceed our human capacity? • If the normal human quantum brain is not that “smart”, then we should not expect brilliant quantum computers supplanting us in the near future? • Will nature’s use of QM contribute/extend to the localism/reality challenges than John Bell initiated? Will it integrate realism and information? • Will nature reveal more QM oddities? • Will the 21st century be the QM information century or the string century? Extra Video:tedx_brussels_2010_-_stuart_hameroff_-_do_we_have_a_quantum_soul_.flv (10 minutes)